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Tag: President Goodluck Jonathan

  • Dialogue Way Out Of Niger Delta Crises- Ex-Deputy Gov

    Dialogue Way Out Of Niger Delta Crises- Ex-Deputy Gov

    Worried by the resumption of bombings of oil pipelines by militants in the Niger Delta, former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Chris Ekpenyong, has warned against using strong-arms tactic to quell the problem.

    Militants’ groups in the region have resorted to blowing up oil and gas infrastructure in the region since former President Goodluck Jonathan lost the 2015 Presidential poll in a protest that has cut oil output from 2.2 million barrel per day to a staggering 1.5 million.

    The agitators, who are demanding for greater share of resources from the zone, have warned oil companies operating in the region to leave or be killed in a renewed campaign to draw Federal Government’s attention to series of environmental disasters plaguing the region.

    But Ekpenyong, though described the agitation as legitimate, has faulted the militants approach, warning that: “there is no amount of militancy that will help the Niger Delta.”

    Speaking in an interview in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, the former Deputy Governor traced the history of arms struggle in the region to the 60s when the late Adaka Boro was at the forefront, noting that such confrontational postures only worked antithetically to undermine the development of the Niger Delta.

    While urging the militants to sheathe their swords, Ekpenyong advised President Muhammadu Buhari to convoke a parley where genuine stakeholders of the region will interface with the Federal Government team to resolve the problem.

    He noted that as the Buhari-led administration has set the tone towards the implementation of UNEP report on Ogoni clean up, it was unnecessary for the militants to further degrade by polluting farmlands and waters that would add to the problems of the long-suffering people of Niger Delta.

    He charged the Federal Government to work towards addressing the genuine concerns of minorities in the polity, recalling that the Willink Constitution of 1958 had provided for the minorities to be given a sense of belonging in the Federation.

    “Niger Delta should be given a fair share of what it is producing”, Ekpenyong stressed, lamenting that the management of oil resources in region must be equitably distributed and Niger Deltans allowed greater participation for greater benefits to the region.

    Besides, Ekpeneyong, who has joined the growing calls for the restructuring of the Federation, advocated for each States to have greater control of their resources, noting that the Federal Government’s overbearing influence on components States was partly responsible for the ongoing geopolitical wars in the country.

    According to him, dousing the current tension in the region through genuine dialogue would detract the President from his pre-election promises to Nigerians and also force public opinion against him -if he wishes to re-contest in 2019.

    He charged the Federal Government to work towards a new paradigm shift by diversifying the economy from oil to agriculture and solid minerals, pointing that such change in focus would reduce attraction from oil, while creating jobs and wealth for the people in other sectors of the economy.

  • Metuh ‘supports’ anti-graft war

    Metuh ‘supports’ anti-graft war

    The former spokesperson of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, has expressed his support for the present administration anti-corruption campaign.

    Metuh’s counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), said in a statement on Thursday that the ex-PDP spokesman has agreed to return the N400 million he allegedly received from the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, to the Federal Government.

    Ikpeazu said his client’s legal team and officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have begun talks to facilitate the return of the funds to federal government.

    The statement reads: “We want to explain the reasons for our client’s proposal to refund the N400 million released to him by former President Goodluck Jonathan, and which was expended on a project approved by the ex-President on national issues relating to his Presidency and the federal government at that time.

    “We want to restate that at the time the money was released to him after his presentation to the ex-President, our client had no knowledge of the source, a fact that is now obvious from the evidence of the prosecution and defence witnesses. Our client had every cause to believe that the money was from the ex-President to whom he made a presentation, received directives and rendered report and accounts accordingly.

    “When the matter first came up, and Chief Metuh was invited to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in December 2015, he requested to know the source of the money and expressed his readiness to make refunds if it was from government coffers, not minding that the money had been expended as directed by the former President. Officials at ONSA never got back to him as they promised, until his arrest by the EFCC in January 2016.

    “It was, however while in court that a document was brought regarding the source of the money and since then, our client has made manifest his willingness to refund the money and has indeed approached his family, friends and associates to mobilise funds to refund the entire N400 million to the government regardless of the fact that the money had been expended based on the directives of the former President and that part of the money had been recovered from one of the prosecution witnesses.

    “We want to confirm that since then, we have been in talks with the Ministry of Justice, the EFCC and other necessary bodies on how to refund the money and resolve the issue.

    “Our client occupied no government office. His commitment and dedication to his official duties have been confirmed by even prosecution witnesses. In this whole saga, he has been an unfortunate victim of circumstances. His refunding the money, therefore, goes to show his support for the anti-corruption war as well as serve as a testament to his sincerity, integrity and honesty in this matter.

    “There is no doubt that the prosecution has considerably embarked on some expenses in the course of this case. It is hoped that by not discounting the sum already recovered, whatever cost so far incurred would have been defrayed. By this, a critical objective of recovery of funds would no doubt be achieved.

    “It is pertinent to restate our client’s continued support for the anti-corruption campaign, which is necessary to ensure probity in the affairs of Nigeria to the extent that it is conducted within the rule of law.

    “Finally, it is our client’s prayer that this nation shall come through this difficult time by the grace of the Almighty God.”

  • Court strikes out Azibola’ suit against EFCC

    Court strikes out Azibola’ suit against EFCC

    A Lagos High Court in Igbosere Tuesday struck out a motion filed by Azibola Robert, who is a cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, asking the court to restrain the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) from arresting, detaining or investigating him.

    Justice Babatunde Candide-Johnson struck out the suit on grounds of lack of diligent prosecution.

    Azibola had also filed a similar motion before Justice O. O  Goodluck of an Abuja High Court which was also dismissed.

    It was thereafter that he filed two separate motions before Justice C.M.A. Olatoregun of the Federal High Court, Lagos and Justice Candide-Johnson.

    On June 9, Azibola and his wife, Stella, were arraigned at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, on a seven-count criminal charge bordering on an alleged $40million contract scam.

    Trial Justice Nnamdi Dimgba gave the defendants bail in the sum of N500 million each, and two sureties in like sum.

    Before their arraignment, Azibola, who was under detention at the EFCC, asked the Lagos Court for an order nullifying and setting aside the remand order obtained by the commission.

    He also asked for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the EFCC or any person whatsoever acting for/on behalf of the Commission from arresting or detaining him and demanded special damages in the sum of N200, 000,000 (Two Hundred Million Naira Only).

    According to the anti-graft agency, between 2012 and 2015, Colonel Sambo Dasuki allegedly awarded fictitious contracts to the tunes of N2.2 billion, $1.6 billion dollars and €9,905,477.00 respectively to Azibola and his companies and proxies.

    Also the sums of $40 million and N650 million were said to have been traced to the bank account of Azibola as monies paid by the former NSA.

  • Al Qaeda leader pledges allegiance to new Taliban leader

    Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in an online audio message, pledged allegiance to the new head of the Afghan Taliban, who was appointed last month after his predecessor was killed in a US drone strike.

    The veteran Islamist militant became al Qaeda’s leader after U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, and he is thought to be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, having been based there since the late 1990s.

    “As leader of the al Qaeda organization for jihad, I extend my pledge of allegiance once again, the approach of Osama to invite the Muslim nation to support the Islamic Emirate,” al-Zawahri said in a 14 minute recording.

    During its years in power, from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and it has been fighting an insurgency since to regain control of the country.

    The authenticity of the recording could not be immediately verified.

    HaibatullahAkhundzada, Islamic legal scholar who was one of former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s deputies, was appointed a few days after Mansour was killed by a U.S. drone attack in a remote border area just inside Pakistan.

    Since al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor-turned-militant, succeeded bin Laden, al Qaeda has lost ground to Islamic State in the leadership of the global jihadist movement.

  • I respect Jonathan for conceding defeat – Buhari

    I respect Jonathan for conceding defeat – Buhari

    One year after the 2015 Presidential elections and assumption in office, President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday declared that he was shocked that former President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to him.

    The action, he said, was a great generosity and a great patriotism.

    He made the remark during a Presidential Lunch for State House correspondents at the New Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.

    He said: “I underrated the influence of the PDP for 16 years watching from outside as 8 consecutive governments. The experience of the staff, their commitment and zeal is different from what it is now. 16 years of development in the life of a developing nation is a long time.

    “This is where I pay my respect to former President Goodluck Jonathan. This is actually a privileged information for you. He called me at a quarter past five in the evening. He said good evening your Excellency Sir, and I said good evening.

    “He said I have called to congratulate you that I have conceded defeat. Of course there was dead silence on my end, because I did not expect it. I was shocked. I did not expect it because after sixteen years the man was a deputy governor, governor, Vice President and was President for six years.

    “For him to have conceded defeat even before the result was announced by INEC, I think it was a great generosity, a great patriotism.

    “Abdulsalam recognized the generosity of Jonathan to concede defeat and said we should go and thank him immediately and that was the first time I came here,” he added.

    According to him, his administration had to trim down the number of ministries from 42 ministries we cut it to 24 and scaling down of the number of permanent secretaries in order to save cost of running government.

    He pointed out that most of the permanent secretaries that were there for over five to seven years only knew how things were done in the previous years.

    He said that the past one year was a tumultuous year for everyone in the Villa.

    Talking about his experience in Aso Villa, he said: “Whatever we did in the campaign, in fact we were saying rubbish and that made it very difficult for us. Things were even more difficult during the budget which you all know about.

    “For somebody like me, for the first time I heard what is called padding. I think we will recover by the fourth quarter of the year, what padding means especially for ministers who had implement what padding contains. There were very serious developments which I never knew about.

    “So really it was a nasty experience for us. It was also a nasty experience for some of the ministers who were new in government, for them to sit down day and night to work. I saw them some of them literarily lost weight because they were sleeping less and eating less, working on every kobo to be spent.

    He said that because Nigeria became a mono-economy based on oil, the past governments relied on oil and forgot about solid minerals, agriculture, and other resources.

    The President added: “We recently just found out that we are poor because we don’t have anything to fall back to. This is the condition we found ourselves and this change mantra had to go through hell up till yesterday.

    “And for you to talk to whoever came to visit us throughout that year I wonder how each of your diaries would be, because people were expecting this change mantra in their own way.

    “How do you define change? Luckily our party identified three major items, security, economy and corruption.

    “One of the men I pity is Lai Mohammed everyday he is on TV explaining our performance or lack of it.”

    He also wondered how some Nigerians betrayed the trust of the people by diverting $2.1 billion meant for fighting insurgency.

    He said: “People were trusted and the most recent one which we haven’t recovered from is the $2.1billion dollars, is was given by the government then to the military to but hardware to fight the insurgency which had taken over part of the country and they just sat just the way you are sitting now and shared the money into their own account.

    “They didn’t even bother. So we are still trying to get the cooperation of the international community and so on and we have to do it with a lot of respect to the judiciary.

    “We can’t go out and talk too much we have to allow the judiciary to do their work. We gave them the facts, the name, country, bank account. If you talk too much technicalities will come in, them we will realize less than what we want to realize.

    “So please when next you want to interrogate out visitors try and do some research so that when they are coming next time, they will do research themselves,” he stated.

  • Judge faults EFCC over detention of Jonathan’s cousin

    Judge faults EFCC over detention of Jonathan’s cousin

    A High Court the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Maitama, Abuja has faulted the Economic and Financial. Crimes Commission (EFCC) over its continuous detention of a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Roberts Azibaola.

    The commission had detained Roberts since March 23 this year following his arrest over his alleged involvement in the diversion of $40million meant for oil pipeline security contract awarded his firm, One-Plus Holdings.

    The judge had, shortly after Azibaola filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit, marked: FCT/CV/1370/2016, to challenge his detention, Justice Olasumbo Goodluck granted an ex-parte application by AziBaola, declaring his continued detention without trial unconstitutional.

    The judge later ordered his production in court by the EFCC.

    Ruling on a separate motion by Azibaola yesterday, Justice Goodluck described his prolonged detention, without trial, as reprehensible and a conduct that smacks of anarchy.

    The judge also noted that a warrant she issued for the EFCC to produce the applicant in court since March this years has not been complied with by the commission.

    The judge observed that “rather than to comply with the production order, the respondent (EFCC) wilfully and knowingly side-stepped this court’s production warrant by releasing the applicant (Azibaola Robert) to security operatives who allegedly took the applicant to Lagos on the same day and time the respondent was required to present the applicant before this court.

    “As an organisation that is set-up to enforce compliance with the law, the respondent must lead by example,” the judge said.

    Justice Goodluck said the EFCC or any other security agency was under the obligation to obey an order of court directing the production of a particular suspect in its custody.

    The judge was of the view that “the conduct of the respondent is unsalutory and condemnable.

    “It undermines the integrity of the court and portends anarchy.‎ No person being a natural or jurisdic person is greater than the court. All persons are subordinates to the rule of law.

    “It is hoped that this rude conduct will never repeat itself. Let nobody pull the wool over the face of this country,” the judge said.

  • Damages of Jonathan era still with us – Omatseye

    Damages of Jonathan era still with us – Omatseye

    Nigerians have been urged to demand more democratic dividends from their leaders.
    Chairman, Editorial Board, The Nation Newspapers, Mr. Sam Omastseye made the call during the launch of his fourth book in Lagos last week.
    The book titled a Chronicle Foretold is a compilation of his articles on former President Goodluck Jonathan’s era as President of the country.
    While noting that it is time to take stock of the tenure of the former president, Omatseye said Nigerians should begin to truly evaluate their leaders.
    “When I wrote this body of work for four to five years, I never knew I will end up telling the tale of the Jonathan’s era. After President Goodluck Jonathan rose to power, I congratulated him even if I didn’t vote for him.
    “However, by the end of the past administration, which led to this present government headed by President Mohammadu Buhari; I felt it was time to tell that story.” Omatseye said.
    He said the damage of the Jonathan era is still with us and urged the present administration to do its best to restore the hope of the people.
    The launch was attended by many dignitaries including representatives of five state governors.
    Omatseye, a practising journalist, historian and poet has published three volumes of poems: Mandela’s Bones & Other Poems, Dear Baby Ramatu and Lion Wind & Other Poems.
  • Parents weep as Govt delegation meets them in Chibok

    Parents weep as Govt delegation meets them in Chibok

    Parents of some of the abducted 219 Chibok school girls wept yesterday at the school premises when they received a joint federal government and Borno State delegation that visited to mark the second anniversary of the abduction.

    They read a poem to remember the girls and urged the government to release the report of the fact-finding panel set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    In his statement, President Muhamad Buhari told the parents: “I share your pains.”

    The delegation to Chibok took off from Maiduguri and travelled three and a half hours through Damboa, under a heavy security cover, to Chibok by road.

    They passed through many communities that are devastated by the Boko Haram insurgents.

    The team made up of ministers, state government officials, federal and state lawmakers, and others, was led by Borno State, Governor Kashim Shettima.

  • Buhari’s foreign trips in order, says Senator Nakudu

    Buhari’s foreign trips in order, says Senator Nakudu

    The Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment, Senator Mohammed Sabo Nakudu has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s frequent trips abroad were part of the price Nigeria had to pay for the impunity and reign of terror witnessed in the country during the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Senator Nakudu who spoke with The Nation in Abuja on Wednesday said the criticism against President Buhari on his foreign trips were based on ignorance as Nigeria would benefit more from some of the multi-national and bilateral agreements signed by the president abroad.

    He cited the agreement signed by the President with the Government of the United Arab Emirate, UAE, among others as example, saying in a short while billion of dollars starched away in that country would be repatriated into Nigeria.

    Senator Nakudu who represents Jigawa South-West in the National Assembly also defended President Buhari’s Ministers , saying it was unfair to described them as lacklustre since they have not even implemented any budget of their own on their assumption of office last year.

    He said the 2016 federal budget which focuss on the the diversification of the economy would address the problems of unemployment and poverty if faithfully implemented, stressing there is wisdom in the government action to improve revenue earnings from the minining and agriculture sectors.

    His words: “the 2016 budget is a clear intention of the government to do away with oil revenues and embrace agriculture and minining. The 2016 budget is geared towards providing the enabling environment for the economy to grow as can be seen from the allocations to the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and with economc growth, the issue of poverty and unemployment will be reduced.

    “The budget is also farmers friendly because the present government has realized the importance agriculture can play in our economic life. However, it must be emphasized that success in agriculture cannot be achieved without the necessary support from all tiers of government as being done in developed countries.”

    Senator Nakudu who enjoined Nigerians to be patient with the administration as steps are being taken to right so many wrongs in the system, said it would take a systematic approach to rejuvenate the economy of the country.

    “The administration has prioritized the issues of corruption and insecurity. And we have seen the results of both. Insurgent activities have reduced drastically and people are now being careful and cautious in government offices. The administration is doing the right thing and I believe everybody who mean well for this country would key into that,” Nakudu stated.

  • Jonathan visits freed foster father, laments kidnapping

    Jonathan visits freed foster father, laments kidnapping

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan, Wednesday, lamented increasing trend of abductions for ransom across the country particularly in the Niger Delta region.

    Jonathan was said to have condemned kidnapping when he visited the home of his freed foster father, Chief Nitabai Inegite, who regained freedom after spending about a month in kidnappers’ den.

    It was gathered that the former President paid the visit in the company of some prominent traditional rulers from his Otuoke community in Ogbia Local Government Area.

    He reportedly appealed to security agencies to stem the tide by doubling their efforts.

    Relieving his ordeals, Inegite, said though he was not maltreated by his abductors, he was happy to be home.

    He expressed sadness over the killing of his nephew Samuel Oki by the kidnappers.

    He said he appealed to the kidnappers, who stormed his residence on two speedboats, to leave Oki alone.

    Inengite who said he was not aware that they later killed his nephew, thanked his sympathisers.

    King Lot Ogiasa, Paramount ruler Otuoke, King Lawson the clan head of Ogbia kingdom of chiefs were among the traditional rulers who accompanied the former President.

    Inengite who was abducted on February 17, was on Tuesday released from captivity.